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Rev. EDWARD LOUNSBERY. 



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A SERMON 



PREACHED IN 



ST. JUDE'S CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA, 



Sunday Morning, Sept. 7, 1862, 



BY THE RECTOR, 

Rev. EDWARD LOUNSBERY. 

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PHILADELPHIA: 

RINGWALT & BROWN, BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS, 

111 SOUTH FOURTH STREET. 

1862. 






CORRESPONDENCE. 



Philadelphia, Sept. 9th, 18G2. 

Rev. Edward Lounsbery: 
Dear Sir: At a meeting of the Vestry, this evening, it was, 
"Resolved, That the thanks of the Vestry are hereby tendered to the Rector for 

the able and faithful discourse delivered in this Church, on Sunday morning last, 

and that he be requested to furnish a copy for publication." 
Hoping for your affirmative reply to our request, 

1 am, very truly, yours, 

ANDREW II. MILLER, 

Secretary of the Vestry. 



Philadelphia, Sept. ]">M, 18G2. 
To the Vestry of St. Jude's Church: 

Gentlemen: The sermon to which you refer was written in great haste and 
solely for the instruction and comfort of my own Congregation. I have no time 
to re-write it. Such as it is, it is at your service. If its publication can do 
anything to calm the anxious — or comfort the mourning — or rouse the apathetic — 
or cheer and strengthen the loyal, in this desperate struggle for the preservation 
of all we hold most dear on earth, I have no right to withhold it. 

Faithfully and truly, yours, 

EDWARD LOUNSBERY. 



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SERMON, 



Isaiah, 26: 20. 

< 'omc, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee : 
hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. 
For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the 
earth for their iniquity: (he earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no 
more cover her slain. 

Such are the terms in which the Lord of Hosts 
summons his redeemed people to the safe covert of his 
mighty care. They indicate a wide-spread and crushing 
calamity. There is a speciality in the prophetic vision 
that seems to link its utterances with those fearful events 
which St. John describes as marking the end of the 
present dispensation, and the incoming of that blessed 
era when Jesus shall take to himself his mighty power 
and "reign in Mount Zion, and before his ancients glo- 
riously." But the people of God are one. In every 
age and land they hold the same relation to him and his 
purposes. His love, his protecting care, his glorious 
design is ever one. And, therefore, the general princi- 
ples on which he administers his government are always 
the same; and the proffers and promises which he makes 
to the Church of one generation belong to all the rest. 
The invitation, the pledge, of our text — all of comfort 
and security and loving care which it implies as the 
heritage of God's covenant people — belong, then, to us 
of this generation just so far as we have faith to perceive 

(3) 



and appropriate them. I believe they were meant for 
us. They only wait our obedient trust to pour the full 
tide of peace along the path of our own experience. 

Listen, beloved, with reverent faith, and out of the 
very darkness that surrounds us, and above the din of 
the appalling strife which is fast filling our hearts with 
mourning and our homes with the dead, you may hear 
a voice saying to each and every one of you, "Come, my 
people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors 
about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment 
until the indignation be overpast." 

But before we can comply with this exhortation, and 
make its peaceful security our own, we must gain a dis- 
tinct perception of the refuge it proposes, and the defence 
it supplies. It is no impossible, far-off refuge — no false 
or merely fancied security — to mock your hopes and 
baffle your efforts. It is real, stable, near at hand, and 
easy of access. 

And, as if to reveal clearly its nature, and help us — 
amid the darkness and dangers of our way — to find the 
safe shelter it yields, the whole history of God's covenant 
people is radiant with its illustrations. Take one of 
many that illumine the pages of ancient story. 

For four hundred years, Egypt had cruelly oppressed 
the children of Israel, and grown great and rich upon 
the unrequited toil and hard servitude of the helpless 
millions whom she had first invited to her soil and then 
reduced to bondage. Her pride and her oppressions 
grew with her growth ; until the cry of these poor cap- 
tives came up unto God, and his sword was drawn 
for their deliverance. For fifteen generations he had 
permitted the gross crime to go on and the oppressor to 
prosper in his sin. But now the iniquity of Egypt was 
full, and the hour of Israel's release had come. Time 



and again the message was sent to Pharoah, "Let my 
people go!" Each demand was enforced by sorer judg- 
ments, and still the haughty monarch refused, and only 
made heavier the yoke of his bondage. Already Egypt 
had been desolated — blasted as by the breath of the 
Almighty. Fear and despair settled down upon the 
terror-stricken people ; but the heart of Pharoah refused 
to bow, and grew but more defiant as the vials of wrath 
fell more heavily upon his head. One more judgment 
remains — the heaviest, sternest of them all. The land 
that had long groaned with the oppressions of the slave, 
must now be bathed in the blood of the master. Her 
first-born must die! The devouring sword is commis- 
sioned to enter every house in the land, until, in the 
graphic language of the sacred text, there was not a 
house in Egypt "where there was not one dead." 

But there, right in the path of the destroying angel, 
were these poor down-trodden slaves, for whose vindica- 
tion and deliverance these judgments were wrought. 
Shall the blow fall equally upon them, as upon their 
oppressors? The innocent may often suffer with the 
guilty. But that was not God's purpose here. These 
judgments were not corrective, but retributive. Israel's 
immunity gave but the more distinctness to the dire 
calamity that lacerated the heart of Egypt. A safe 
covert was found from the storm, and ere it burst upon 
the land, in every home of Israel a voice of tender love 
was heard — "Come my people, enter thou into thy 
chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as 
it were for a little moment, until the indignation be 
overpast." 

What that refuge was — how simple and yet how 
perfect the protection it gave — you all know full well. 



6 

Amid the darkness that shrouded the homes of Egypt, 
Israel "had light in their dwellings.'' Amid the wail of 
agony that went up from the stricken families of the 
land, the believing people of God reposed in safety, 
unharmed, untouched by the blow! The blood of the 
passover was their defence! Now, brethren, in more 
points than one, our situation is like that of Egypt on 
that memorable night. I will not attempt to trace the 
analogy in full. Let it suffice to say that a pall of thick 
darkness has shrouded our once bright and happy land; 
and from out the cover of that darkness, there comes 
forth the red glare and deep roar of a conflict which is 
fast drenching our land in the life-blood of her children. 
In the days of our prosperity we have forgotten the God 
who redeemed us, and spurned the hand that fed us. 
With all our growing greatness, the nation has but sunk 
deeper in corruption. Impiety has taken the place of 
the fear of God. Selfish greed has usurped the throne 
where true principle and honor ruled. The authority of 
God has been set at naught — His word despised — His day 
trampled in the dust. We have long resisted all the 
appliances by which He has sought to win us to repent- 
ance, and at length He has appeared for our chastisement. 
"The Lord has come forth out of his place to punish the 
inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity." The sword 
is going through the land, piercing to every home, filling 
our streets with mourners and loading the very air with 
the wail of agony! Apparently it has but just begun 
its fearful w T ork. Before it can be returned to its scab- 
bard, the purposes of God must be accomplished; the 
nation must be redeemed from its sins; our iniquities 
must be purged away. And, brethren, from all present 
indications, before that shall be done, the wail of Egypt 



must be heard again, and not a house be left without its 
sacrifice to the stern exigency of the conflict! 

Such is but a mild statement of our actual condition. 
We may as well open our eyes to the fact. So far as we 
are personally concerned, we are but entering the deep 
waters of the strife. Hitherto, for the most part, we have 
known the horrors of war only as we have gazed on 
them from the safe sanctuary of our homes; we have 
felt them only through our sympathies and our fears. 
It will be strange indeed, my brethren, if we are not 
compelled to study them in afar different school! Let us 
accept the fact then, and with brave and manly hearts 
look out upon the clouds that are gathering so darkly 
around us, and calmly go forth to meet the solemn 
responsibilities they may bring. 

To such an issue, beloved, I desire in all possible ways 
to contribute. As a pastor, I would lead you to a safer 
refuge than munitions of war, or hosts of armed men. I 
would help you plant your feet upon a rock from which 
no billows can move you. I would give you an antidote 
for fear that will not fail you, even when the crushing 
blow shall fall, and lay waste the fair heritage of your 

joy. 

To such a refuge our text invites us. It may help 
us to find it, to trace two or three of its elements as 
illustrated in the history of Israel, to which I have 
referred you. 

First. You will notice then, in the first place, that 
this refuge is something personal and individual, rather 
than collective or national: "Enter thou into thy cham- 
bers, and shut thy doors about thee." A chamber is not 
merely a place of secure and sheltered repose, but of 
secret retirement; something that belongs in a peculiar- 
sense to its individual occupant; a sacred retreat where he 



may lie down securely, nor fear the step of the intruder. 
Such is the figure which God employs to describe the refuge 
to which he invites. It is a sanctuary for the individual, 
and which the individual himself must enter. It did not 
suffice to shield the Israelites on the night of the Passover 
that they were descendants of Abraham or members of 
the Hebrew Church. Nor will it avail to shelter us from 
the fearful calamity that now palls our land and threatens 
to engulf us in its ruin, that we belong to the strongest 
party, or that our cause is just and must prevail. The 
cause may be just, and yet its triumph may cost the lives 
of many thousands more of its brave defenders ! Nay, 
for the humbling of our pride and the punishment of our 
sins, the cause itself may seem for a time to fail. Who 
shall say that our lukewarmness and our crimes do not 
richly deserve such a rebuke? 

Secondly. You will notice it is not so much a rescue 
from trouble as a refuge in trouble. Israel found it right 
in the path of the destroyer. It had been as easy to 
rescue them from that midnight sword by breaking at 
©nee the yoke of their bondage and removing them bod- 
ily from the borders of Egypt. It was a far more signal 
and glorious defence to hold them there unscathed, amid 
the desolated homes of their oppressors. And, brethren, 
our present defence is not to be found in any local escape 
from the region of danger, or any refusal to participate 
in the fearful ordeal of the conflict. We are here in the 
midst of it. Its heavy burden has been put upon us by 
other hands than our own, and we cannot shake it off. 
We may as well bend cheerfully to the task, and accept 
it as the stern necessity of the hour. Sooner or later we 
shall, every one of us, be compelled to choose our posi- 
tion and cast our influence either for or against our 
country. The cowardly traitor who, in such an hour as 



9 

this, seeks to purchase immunity for himself and his 
loved ones at home from the dangers and burdens under 
which the great loyal heart of the nation is struggling, 
by shirking the one or running away from the other, 
will be the first to feel the ruin he invites. 

What we want, brethren, is not to escape from these 
dire calamities — not to be released from their burdens, 
or transported to some other land where they will not 
reach us ; but to be upheld in the midst of them — to be 
guided amid the darkness of our way, and strengthened 
for every duty which a Christian patriotism or a self- 
denying beneficence may impose — and to be kept calm, 
peaceful and hopeful amid the wildest raging of the 
storm! Thus it was with Israel, hid in the concave 
shield of the Lord's appointment, though the desolating 
sword was all around them. And such is the refuge to 
which we are invited. But, 

Thirdly, it follows from these two prior facts, that 
this refuge belongs to the mind, the soul, rather than 
to the body. It is a matter of faith rather than of 
sight. We are to perceive it, and enter it, and appro- 
priate it, hy faith, rather than by any physical progres- 
sion. It is something for the heart to rest on when 
other foundations fail. It gives peace and joy in the very 
midst of calamity and tumult. It opens a secure retreat 
when dangers press the nearest; and yields a perfect 
repose of which no outward strife can rob us. Where, 
then, dear friends, shall we find this blessed refuge ? 
How can we enter it so as to make it evermore our own? 
The answer is found in the positive elements of its nature 
as revealed again in the illustration to which I have 
pointed you. These are mainly three: 

I. We must be able to feel and appropriate the forgiv- 
ing and adopting grace of God. It is meant only for— it 



10 

is proffered only to — the "people" of Grod. But the peo- 
ple of God are sinners redeemed by the grace of God. 
These poor slaves of Egypt were but stiff-necked rebels 
themselves. The shield that defended them was the 
blood upon the door. Their putting it there was a 
declaration of their faith in that great atoning sacrifice 
"that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel." 

So with us. It is faith in Christ that makes us the 
children of God, and brings us into the privileged 
chamber of his presence, and makes us the heirs of his 
covenant faithfulness and protecting care. 

The very first thing for us to do in order to secure 
this blessed refuge is to repent of our sins. We must 
perceive them, and acknowledge them, and turn away 
from them. Nothing else, brethren, can give us any 
security. Under any circumstances it is the first condi- 
tion of peace and safety. And now, if we would be safe 
amid the perils that surround us, we must hide ourselves 
in the cleft of the Rock; we must enter the chamber 
over whose portal there is placed the bloody shield of the 
Cross. We are safe only there. 

II. But this is not all — there is a work for us to do; 
and safety and peace are found only in the path of duty. 
When Paul was shipwrecked off the coast of Malta, it 
was only by the vigorous efforts of the crew that the 
promised safety was secured. The blood upon the door 
was the shield of Israel when the first-born of Egypt 
were slain; but every other step in the ordinance of the 
Passover was an essential requisite to its efficient pro- 
tection. 

And so, brethren, of ourselves in this fearful exigency 
through which we are passing — a solemn and heavy 
responsibility is imposed upon every one of us. To 



11 

neglect it may be treason to God and to our country. 
Let us every one, then, study our duty in the light of 
God's word; and when we have found it, manfully, 
bravely, cheerfully, go forth and do it, wherever it may 
lead us — whatever of toil or danger or self-sacrifice it 
may involve. They walk securely who walk where duty 
leads! 

III. One element more and our confidence is com- 
plete: God rules the storm! He it is that has let loose 
this tempest of infuriate passion upon us. It is His 
voice of stern rebuke. "He visits the earth to punish 
the inhabitants thereof for their iniquity." To us it is 
all. dark. We see not the end. But in all, over all, 
there is a divine purpose which, sooner or later, is sure 
to be accomplished. Through all these tumults of 
human passion, and these conflicts of human ends, God 
is marching straight on to the achievement of His own 
glorious and beneficent designs. This unnatural war — 
the most gigantic and the most cruel in the history of 
civilized nations — is but a step in that direction. And 
though we may not live to see it, yet when the smoke 
and tumult shall have passed away, it will be found that 
a mighty advance has been made toward the reign of 
truth and righteousness and peace upon the earth. 

God's kingdom takes no backward steps. Let us seize 
upon the fact, brethren, and make it the corner-stone of 
our confidence. We desire no success for our arms or 
our cause that does not link us with the advancing reign 
of Jesus. We may suffer. The desolations of war may 
sweep over our hearth-stones, and drink up the life- 
blood of the nation, but in the end the right shall tri- 
umph! God's purposes shall be accomplished. The 



12 

cause of Christ, the highest interests of the race will 
have been advanced. Enter then, beloved, into this 
chamber of secure and abiding repose. You will find it 
a safe hiding place while the storm is sweeping by. 



O God, the protector of all that trust in 
thke, without whom nothing is strong, nothing 
is holy, increase and multiply upon us thy 
mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, 
we may so tass through things temporal, 
that we finally lose not the things eternal. 
Grant this, Heavenly Father, for Jesus 
Christ's sake our Lord. Amen. 



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